The RMT union has condemned the scrapping of a pilot on ScotRail which abolished peak fares for a year.

The trial did not yield the results for which ministers had hoped, and Transport Scotland said it was not financially possible to continue beyond next month, when the 12-month trial expires. But the RMT described the decision as ‘a retrograde step’.

The union’s general secretary Mick Lynch said the decision undermined the Scottish Government’s own climate change and car reduction goals.

He continued: ‘RMT has long called for the off-peak fares trial to be made permanent, and the decision to scrap the trial will be significant disappointment for many passengers. The return of peak fares, inflated by this year’s 8.7 per cent fare increase, will make rail travel unaffordable for many and push people into cars.

‘The Scottish government should be investing in making rail travel affordable, accessible and reliable and it should rethink this short-sighted and damaging decision.’